cRPG Level Editors

Some cRPGs have a focus on community modding, and ship with quite powerful level editors. The TES games and NWN 1&2 are perhaps the most widely known.

For those that have used such tools, which do you think is the most useable, and what do you like/dislike about them?

Are there any other games with editors that are as good (or better)?

Just to add some more other Level editor / mod tools to check out

The new Shadowrun games have mod tools
Freedom Force has one
Pillars of Eternity now has one
Daggerfall Unity as one
I know KOTOR can be modded I'm not sure how I don't know how easy it is or not
The old Forgotten Realms unlimited Adventures gold box Style game editor is a mod tool/ Adventure creator
there's also a modern engine called iceblink engine as well as a game called Realms that are for making goldbox style games

Thanks for the additions.

Do you have any details about the Pillars of Eternity level editor? I didn't know they had one.

Ripper said:

Thanks for the additions.

Do you have any details about the Pillars of Eternity level editor? I didn't know they had one.

Click to expand...

PoE doesn’t have a level editor Afaik.

-Divinity Original Sin has a level editor (not sure about EE)

-Divinity Original Sin 2

https://youtu.be/zHf_wNTDNIo

-As tactician mentioned FRUA, the community has a really good amount of modules to dive into.

-Realms Beyond is a kickstarted game that is in development and promised it would launch with modding tools, but who knows.

https://youtu.be/RjjDHEegtYQ

IE games and ToEE can also be modded, but you need 3D skills to be able to create maps because they use an image as the level.

EDIT:

Dragon Age Origins

https://youtu.be/syFaFXrgU-A

Thanks. Do you have any experience using those editors? I'm not so much interested in the modules themselves, but on the quality and useabilty of the editors, and people's thoughts about them. I'm interested to know which might be seen as good examples that make life easier, and which are painful to use, and why.

I'm familiar with the TES Creation Kit, which, IMO, is a pain in the arse, and it's a wonder that any quests get created at all. I've never used the NWN editors, but, judging by the volume of modules created, I'm guessing they're reasonably decent tools.

I tinkered very briefly with NWN1's editor and also with Shadowrun Returns editor. I would say in both cases if you want to make something very simple (e.g., combat heavy linear adventures with a few fetch quests in between) it is very straightforward that someone w/ no modding experience like myself can pick up quickly. (Because of Shadowrun's perspective it might take a little getting used to in terms of how to create buildings that look right).

But where the challenge really seems to come in is when you want to do more complex things, such as offering the player some choices with consequences (which I inevitably wanted to do) or making proper cutscenes.

I quickly realized that it would take a great deal of time for me to learn how to make something that I would be happy with and I'd prefer to use my limited free time to play other creator's adventures rather than invest so much time learning the ins and outs of the toolset, playtesting etc. to make my own.

I have not looked at the toolsets for SR: Dragonfall or HK so I don't how much things have changed. Also haven't tinkered with NWN2 toolset but the general consensus from the community seemed to be that it had a steeper learning curve than NWN1 & takes longer to create something… which is probably the main reason there are so many fewer modules for NWN2 than NWN1.

There was also the Bard's Tale Construction Set, which allowed for BT-style games. IIRC you could even make items and spells, though it was very limited in scope (granted, that's not much different than the original BT games). FRUA was out close to the same time, and had both the superior Gold Box combat and the AD&D ruleset so I never messed with it much.

I had a couple modules made for FRUA long ago, but I'll be damned if I remember much of them these days. I don't know if I ever uploaded them or not.

I had a great deal of fun back in the days with the Forgotten Realms: Unlimited Adventures. I'd likely be busy for a few months if a company ever updated that game and re-released it.

I have quite some experience with the toolset for both NWN1 and 2.
Building with the NWN2 toolset is much more complex but you can create more complex and beautiful maps.
The reason is that NWN1 used a tile-based approach for the terrain where it's quite simple create your base map. With NWN2 you have to create the heightmap freely, paint it with different textures and place stones, rocks, trees all manually by yourself.

Yeah, I've played with NWN and NWN2 editors for many years. They both have their issues, but they will basically let you build whatever type of module you can imagine, if you can live within the limitations of the engines and have sufficient endurance to stick with it. Plus they are both quite mod-able.

Right now I'm looking forward to trying out the game editor in Realms Beyond. It looks like it could be good. Hopefully that will get a new generation of game builders interested.